Welcome to the inaugural entry of DisenFranchisement, a sub-feature of Pop Optics that I am dedicating to the exploration of film franchises. I’m going to focus on horror right now because that’s a film genre rife with franchises and long-running … Continue reading Pop Optics: Introducing DisenFranchisement!
Stage Fright is a horror film released in 1987, also under the title Deliria. The plot centers around a theater group rehearsing a musical about a murderer. Soon, an actual killer escapes from an asylum and ends up at the … Continue reading Day Thread Has Stage Fright
When I first thought about writing some sort of retrospective about 9/11, I wanted to do so from my perspective and through a lens I know well: pop culture. Specifically, how the aftermath of 9/11 (in)directly closed the door on … Continue reading Pop Optics: A Brief Reflection on 9/11
So, August 17th is known as National Black Cat Appreciation Day, but there’s also a National Black Cat Day that falls on October 27th. I feel like that’s kind of a cheat, but really, black cats deserve all the attention. … Continue reading Day Thread Honors The Creatures of the Night!
My birthday is officially on the 17th, but I’m celebrating it today because no one parties on a Tuesday. It’s a spooky luau. What makes it spooky? ME! Have fun and Hail Pazuzu! Continue reading Luau of The Damned Day Thread
A brief pondering on Friday the 13th, the most linear and coherent of horror films. I won’t spend too much time discussing this topic. It’s something I’ve dwelled on a lot and would like to share. The Friday the 13th … Continue reading Pop Optics: A Brief Synopsis of the Friday the 13th Timeline
There’s a moment in The Truman Show where our titular character, Truman Burbank, stares dead-eye into his bathroom mirror. This gives pause to two technicians in the observation room as they suspect that perhaps Truman has finally figured them out … Continue reading Pop Optics: The Truman Show and the Sudden Realization Your Life is a Lie
This Open Thread is now the Danhausen Day Thread! The Dayhausen Thread. Day Threadhausen! Danhausen is good, Danhausen is great! We surrender our will as of this date! Love that Danhausen! Send Danhausen your money or buy his merch so … Continue reading The Day Thread is Very Nice, Very Evil
Fargo had a wide release on March 8, 1996. On its 25th anniversary, I want to think out loud about how a few of its principal characters were quite the fools and how their hubris was their downfall. Not that … Continue reading Pop Otpics: Fargo and the Art of the Fool
And now we are onto the second installment of our Open Thread Double Feature – FRANKENHOOKER! What is this film? Cult classic late-era exploitation film from noted cult director Frank Henenlotter, which has more in common with Frankenstein than the … Continue reading Valentine’s Double Feature: Night Thread, Film 2: Frankenhooker
Welcome to the Valentine’s Day Open Thread Double Feature Extravaganza! Today, our first film is Bride of Re-Animator! What is this film? Sequel to cult classic Re-Animator, wherein the dark humor is doubled-down to mixed results but the gore and … Continue reading Valentine’s Double Feature: Day Thread, Film 1: Bride of Re-Animator
Fuck Nazis. Fuck Trump. Hail Satan. Continue reading Tuesday Politics Thread
I have no plan here. No outline. No deep thoughts. This past year doesn’t deserve it. The end of 2020 doesn’t mean an end to all the injustices and bullshit that happened to occur in the last 366 days, but … Continue reading Pop Optics: No Requiem for 2020
Hope those who will be celebrating a modest and safe Thanksgiving don’t have any relatives suddenly show up, causing a panic. Also, is that cranberry sauce? Hail Satan. Continue reading Sauced Night Thread
The Exorcist III would have been brilliant if it were just George C Scott and Brad Douriff starring in William Peter Blatty’s supernatural take on My Dinner With Andre. It’s a “tortured genius” kind of brilliant, nonetheless. As far as … Continue reading Pop Optics Extra: An Incidental Exorcist III Analysis
The objective of this article is to not be an in-depth cataloging or inventory of every horror sequel ever, but rather an observation from someone who has seen their fair share of horror sequels and wishes to comment on it. … Continue reading Halloween II And The Shape of Horror Sequels to Come
Okay, I’m not totally late to the party on There Will Be Blood, as I finally saw it last year, but that puts it 12 years after its release. You know what film I saw when it was released that … Continue reading Late To The Party: There Will Be Blood
Oh, I’ve been struggling to write this particular entry. I think the reason is how do you best articulate the need to remake a film that largely is already enjoyable as is? That’s often the main crime of a remake: … Continue reading ReMake Me Over: Once Bitten
The Greasy Strangler was recommended to me by a friend who has a similar taste in horror films and appreciation for trash cinema. I took his word as bond, though I wouldn’t finally watch this film until about over a … Continue reading Scene Dissections: The Greasy Strangler
In the 1995 cyberpunk film “classic” Johnny Mnemonic, punk rock legend (and man with the most hardcore neck in the scene) Henry Rollins played a doctor. Named Spider. Doctor Spider. He mostly delivered his lines the same way he barked … Continue reading Doctor Spider Day Thread
